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Today, as so many of us do, I reflect on the past year and can’t help but feel extremely grateful and lucky for a year of health and prosperity. I realize that it’s a precious few that actually have both in their life, and I try not to take this for granted. On a personal note, it was a milestone year for me turning the big four zero, and although I have to admit I wasn’t thrilled about leaving my 30’s, I can honestly say that I have everything I could ever want in my life. I have a healthy family, a home that we are making our own (one remodel at a time), friends that are unconditional, and a job that I love! Even as I write all this it sounds kind of “Mary Poppins-ish, ” but it really is a superecalifrag… well, you know.

On a professional note, this year has been the best one yet. I feel incredibly fortunate for everything. On the busiest of days over the holiday season as I was busting my hump to get orders out in time, (literally sweat’n to the oldies) I recognized how lucky I felt to be doing something I love, even if it is a stressful and busy business. All that said, this was a year of big wins for Albie Designs. While luck and timing certainly cannot be discounted, I am going to take a moment to be proud of myself. As hard as that is for me to do, the truth is I worked hard, and sometimes I just need to take a moment to step back and acknowledge the successes. When you work for yourself it’s easy to forget to hit pause and reflect on completed work, and even pat yourself on the back. I guess if I am going to do such a thing, the final day of the year is a good place to look back from.

Peering into the rear view mirror of 2014, here are some of Albie Designs highlights:

BLOG LOVE

Pretty much the only marketing I do is through other blogs which has become increasingly harder to do in an over-saturated market. I tend to target the popular design blogs that I love, but they have larger audiences as well. The are also usually very difficult to get mentioned on, as you can imagine they get thousands of soliciting emails similar to mine, and therefor response is rare. These are a few of the blogs that I was honored to be a part of last year,

I had three successful sales with Zulily this year, with the last one that I did right before Thanksgiving being the best one yet!! I did almost as much in sales in a 3 day Zulily sale, as I typically do in a quarter from my Etsy shop. It was a big win for Albie Designs!

Domino–oh how I LOVE you!

One of the biggest heart stopping moments for me this year was when I saw in my INBOX an email from Domino Magazine wanting to feature my work on their website. I literally almost peed my pants. Domino is by far my favorite design magazine publication out there. My best friend and I joke about their book when it was released that it was our “design bible”…. seriously!! So you can imagine my shock and excitement when they responded back to my message to them. I was convinced it would be placed into the folder of rejected emails with all of the others.

In 2013 I received a lovely email from a woman named Nicole asking me if I would mind if my work was featured on an episode of Property Brothers. She and her husband were going to be on an upcoming episode, and had shown my work to the Property Brothers and they liked it so much they wanted to put it in one of the finished installed rooms. I was of course thrilled at this opportunity, and then it was a waiting game. Nicole wasn’t sure when the episode was going to air, or even if they would show my prints as part of the episode after all the editing that occurs. It was scheduled for spring time, but ended up actually showing in August 2014. I was at the beach with family, so it was so fun to watch it with loved ones. The episode was almost over, and in the final minutes lo and behold there they were a few of my international prints. It was amazing!!

Sorry, I couldn’t find the full episode online, and so all I have is this poor image of it taken by a friend who was watching the program.

To wrap up this rather long post, I couldn’t be happier with 2014, and I am looking forward to exciting stuff already in the works for 2015!! I truly hope you had a great year, and the next one is even better!!

Here are some more shots of our master bedroom and bath remodel. Let’s start with the bedroom.

This room is everything I wanted it to be and more! I love the double doors going out to our patio. It’s not huge, but it fits all of our furniture in it, and we wanted more room for the bathroom and walk-in closet.

On to the bathroom of my dreams. No joke, I will go in to it a few times a day and look around. I seriously can’t believe that it’s done, and we LOVE it!

I don’t really know what I love the most about it. If I had to pick though, I would probably say the shower tile floor.

It’s seriously gorgeous!! We got all of the tile from http://www.annsacks.com/. I will be back for more when it’s kitchen remodel time.

Last but not least is our powder room. It used to be the old master bedroom’s closet. Funny thing, it’s actually about the same size as my old master bath.

For the past 8 months I have measured time in increments of 2 weeks. It’s been a running joke in our household that everything in this remodel will take “2 weeks.” If you haven’t seen the movie Money Pit then our joke probably isn’t very funny to you. For us it’s been both our reality and a source of comic relief since we started the master suite remodel. Everything from the plumbing fixtures to the shower glass doors were all supposed to be done in “2 weeks”…….

Of course it typically took more like 3-4 weeks to get these things done, but in the end we couldn’t be happier with the end result.

So, let’s get down to business. Here are some before pics and a few during the process. I debated on whether or not to show the before pictures, b/c unfortunately they do not do a very good job of telling the story. We basically combined 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, and a hallway to make one big master suite. There was some moving of walls, removing of toilets and a whole mess of electrical work that needed to be done to make this happen.

The last shot is of the double doors we added in our room. I’ve always wanted french doors like these in my room. I love the idea of being able to have access to a patio and/or your backyard.

And finally here are just a few shots of the new room and bathroom. I apologize they are not the best pictures. I borrowed a wide angle lens from my Dad to take the before pictures, and you can see what a difference it makes. I just need to get a wide angle lens for myself. I promise better pictures to come…..

It’s funny even as I write this post, I realize how much I am leaving out with just a few pictures and a couple paragraphs to describe our journey. It was truly quite the process, and although we are no strangers to remodeling, this one seemed to take it’s toll. Now it’s not enough to make us stop of course, we are gluttons for punishment! For now though you’ll find me most evenings relaxing with a glass of wine in my new tub dreaming of our next big project.

With my 12th anniversary just around the corner, I have been thinking a lot about weddings recently. Oh how I love myself a good wedding to go to, and I hate that we’ve long outgrown the “wedding circuit” days. Now we are lucky if we have one wedding to go to a year! I really can’t think of a wedding that I didn’t love, but I think the most memorable ones for me get the details and personal touches right. It’s not about the fancy food or big band, it’s all about the little nuances, whether it’s in the invitations, the ceremony, or at the reception that make a wedding stand out. In fact, a few months back one of my customer’s was kind enough to share with me some pictures from her own wedding where her guests signed my Chicago print instead of the traditional guest book. Such a great idea! I’ve been to weddings before where you sign a picture of the couple, but I like this idea as well, especially if you fell in love in that city. Either way it’s a nice change, and awesome because you can frame it and hang it somewhere in your house to remind you of your big day. Rather than signing a guest book that you pack away in a box that eventually ends up in the attic, never to be seen again (like us). I love that kind of detail that makes your wedding unique.

As long as we’ve been married we’ve never had a master suite per-se, we’ve had really small rooms with either a bathroom down the hall, or in the case of our last home, an airplane size bathroom (NO JOKE) connected to our room. In the new house we are living next to our boy’s in one of the two rooms upstairs–not the intended master bedroom. The old master is on the main, and in our last reno project we cut it in half to create a great room attached to our kitchen. While our room upstairs is a generous size, I get the special treat of sharing a bathroom with all three boy’s in my life, two of which are under the age of eight. Let’s just say I never sit down without checking first. So, as you can imagine I am more than ready to start the next phases of our renovation–the master suite, and the backyard (which I will post about later). Our vision when we bought this house last summer was to have the master on the main, and although it technically already is, we wanted to create a “real” master suite by taking over one of the smaller bedrooms on the main. That way the boys will have the upstairs space to themselves, and we get the downstairs! Unlike our last remodel project, I want to do a better job of sharing the progress from beginning to end. So, let’s begin with the plans and some inspirational images that I have been daydreaming about for a long time…

Here’s a space plan that I worked up of our existing lay-out and what I am thinking for the new space.

And here are some of the inspirational images that are rolling around in my head….

I hope you’ll check back in from time-to-time to see how this all plays out!

A friend the other day asked me how I decide which city I am going to do next, and I really wasn’t sure how to reply, as there is no formula or routine. It’s primarily driven by requests from customers. If there is a city that continually gets asked about I put it at the top, and there you have Charlotte and Phoenix. Both cities have been requested more times than I can count. As always its most important to me to let the personality of each city act as the foundation for my prints, thus it takes me months to complete a city. I do not just look at a picture and draw it. I take hundreds of images, and source as much information as possible (including maps and local blogs) to help create a scape that is familiar, but not typical. I want each print to incorporate many of the city’s landmarks, critical architecture, and surrounding nature as possible. In fact, in most cases it’s equally important that nature’s skyline is as much a part of the design as the architecture. At the end of the day though, wrapped up in the MANY hours of research, sketching, drawing, frustration, and breakthrough moments, I hope that I create a piece that is endeared by those who love the city. Enjoy…

We recently found out some of our dear friends are moving to LA, and while we are excited for their next adventure our household is in mourning! They were some of the first people we met when we moved in to our neighborhood, and we instantly clicked! Our son’s were just little guys, I don’t know if my oldest was even one, and my second son wasn’t born yet. They have two boys as well, and all four of them are only a year apart and have grown up together. While everyone gets along amazingly (adults included), it’s the two oldest boys that are truly connected. It makes me cry just thinking about it, b/c I have been blessed with lifetime friends, and naturally I want the same for my children. I am hopeful that even though they won’t grow up next door to each other, their precious friendship will endure distance and time, and that they can be lifetime pals!

As far as the new house goes, I’m also feeling blue, but thankfully not the sad kind. I am obsessed with the color right now, and similar to stripes in my wardrobe, I have to actively restrain myself from purchasing more! Below you’ll see a few of the latest “blues” that I’ve added to our home.